Green Peppercorn Express, Out the Back of a Marrickville Pub, Goes Big on Thailand’s Isaan Flavours

Across socials, one of the most overused phrases you’ll hear is “hidden gem” – it’s now a buzzword without any meaning. And yet it’s hard to think of a better description for Green Peppercorn Express. Tucked into a small, windowless room in the back of Marrickville’s pocket-sized Crown & Emperor Hotel, twin brothers Dylan and Sean Lim run a restaurant pushing flavours you’d typically find in Sydney’s west.

The newcomer is a casually geared inner-west outpost of the Inthavong family’s original Green Peppercorn in Fairfield. When Tona Inthavong left the business to start the Express franchise, he granted the Lim brothers creative freedom to play his family’s Thai and Laotian hits through the lens of their own in Marrickville.

The siblings’ mother, Stephanie Boyd, has spent 17 years running her own restaurants in Sydney, and Sean says their version of Green Peppercorn Express is largely down to her. “We got the menu from our mum,” Sean says. “The menu, ingredients and recipes all came from her.”

It’s the first time the pair have done business together. Dylan anchors the back of house, after spending a year in Thailand and close to a decade in their mother’s restaurants. Sean, with a background in interior design and e-commerce, runs the floor. They’ve united to go all-in on the food of the Isaan region in Thailand’s northeast, which borders Cambodia and Laos, with warmth and care that extends beyond the plate. 

Take the flame-grilled oxtongue. It’s marinated for two days in a garlicky blend of soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar, then served with their mum’s nam jim sauce. It’s velvety and bouncy, with a beefy but mildly buttery flavour that pairs perfectly with any of the papaya salads. Go for the Laos papaya salad – the funky salted crab and anchovy dressing cuts through the tongue’s fattiness with plenty of tang.

Spicy Laotian-style sausages are intensely aromatic – herbal, citrusy and savoury, with a restrained heat that invites another bite rather than warning you off. Eat it with pinches of sticky rice and everything clicks: juices soak up, textures collide. “I wish I could tell you some of the ingredients,” Sean says, keeping the 25-plus elements secret. 

Rice ball salad is a hit – crispy, soft and fragrant in every bite. Balls of jasmine rice are coated in curry and aromatics, deep fried, then smashed and tossed with fish sauce, a garlicky fermented pork, herbs and roasted peanuts. The pork arrives from the butcher across the road, cured for a couple of days. 

You’ll find classic Thai dishes here, too – like pad thai, pad see ew and Massaman curry – but the brothers are consciously pushing deeper into Isaan. Their latest menu contains regional specialties like Laos beef soup (Vietnamese pho’s sweeter and beefier cousin) and lad na, a comforting dish of wide noodles blanketed in rich gravy. 

The Lims aren’t actively chasing clout. They’ve barely touched social media, relying instead on word of mouth. “We’re kind of letting it flow,” says Sean. “The food’s good – but don’t hear it from us.” 

It’s already working. Lunch crowds are building – Green Peppercorn Express couldn’t stay hidden for long. 

Green Peppercorn Express
220 Marrickville Road, Marrickville
0414 847 573

Hours:
Mon to Wed 11.30am–4pm, 5pm–8.30pm
Thu to Sat 11.30am–4pm, 5pm–9pm
Sun 11.30am–4pm, 5pm–8pm

gpexrestaurant.com.au
@greenpeppercornx.marrickville